NEW YORK, March 22, 2001 -- Wall Street law firm Carter, Ledyard & Milburn announced today that it is representing Avnet, Inc. (NYSE: AVT) in connection with its acquisition of Kent Electronics Corporation (NASDAQ: KNT), a leading specialty electronics distributor, in an agreed stock-for-stock merger transaction valued today at approximately $550 million.

Phoenix, Arizona-based Avnet, Inc., a Fortune 500 company with annual sales exceeding $11.7 billion, is one of the world's largest distributors of semiconductors, interconnect, passive and electromechanical components, computer products and enterprise solutions and embedded systems from leading manufacturers. Serving customers in 63 countries, Avnet markets, inventories and adds value to these products and provides world-class supply-chain management and engineering services. Avnet's Web site is located at www.avnet.com.

Houston, Texas-based Kent Electronics is among the largest publicly traded specialty electronics distributors and network integrators. Kent Components provides distribution and value-added services with a focus on interconnect, passive and electromechanical components. Kent Datacomm provides complete end-to-end networking solutions, including design, consulting, source selection, product configuration and installation, and warranty and technical support. Kent's Web site is located at www.kentelectronics.com.

CLM Client Defeats Challenge to Confession of JudgmentCarter Ledyard helped one of its merchant cash advance clients prevail in a litigation in which a merchant sought to vacate a judgment entered against it by our client based on an affidavit of confession of judgment.